Voices: Turning our backs on immigrant children

Jul. 1, 2014
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A young girl traveling with Central American migrants plays on a freight train they had been riding after a minor derailment June 20 in a remote wooded area outside Reforma de Pineda, Chiapas state, Mexico. / Rebecca Blackwell, AP

by Alan Gomez, USA TODAY

by Alan Gomez, USA TODAY

When Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican, found out that some people in federal custody would be sent to her state and housed at Fort Sill, she called the move "inappropriate," saying President Obama shouldn't be using those facilities "as a tool to cover up" his failed policies.

As word got out that federal authorities were thinking of using a former monastery in Illinois for the same reason, Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-Ill., called the move "ill-conceived" and said, "We should immediately halt this effort."

After learning that some people had been sent to prison facilities in Massachusetts, Democratic state Sen. Richard Moore worried that they could "escape into the general population."

No, these politicians weren't talking about suspected terrorists being shipped to their states. They were talking about undocumented immigrants - most of them kids.

In the past few months, the Southwest border has been flooded by children traveling without their parents. In 2011, fewer than 4,000 unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras were caught trying to cross into the USA. In the first eight months of fiscal 2014, that number nears 40,000.

Border Patrol offices have been overwhelmed by the surge, forcing them to cram the children into makeshift facilities never designed to house so many people. In response, federal officials have scrambled to find places to put them, scouring the country for housing that can be used quickly, and safely, for children.

At each stop, they have faced intense criticism from local officials and residents who say they don't want undocumented immigrants, however young, in their backyard.

I understand how intense the immigration debate can be, but this one baffles me.

Sure, there are many immigration issues that need to be sorted out. Are the children coming because their parents believe Obama's Department of Homeland Security won't deport them, or because they fear the rampant violence raging back home? Do many of them get to stay in the USA because of lax immigration enforcement or because of the time it takes for their cases to get through a severe backlog in our immigration court system? Would a bill that overhauls the nation's immigration system stop the rush of undocumented immigrants or speed up the flow?

Are Republicans to blame for not passing an immigration bill, as President Obama claimed during a fiery White House speech Monday? Or is the president to blame for refusing to enforce laws, as House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said?

Those are all valid questions. But I have a very hard time understanding how anybody could object to the idea that the United States should properly house and care for these kids while their cases are resolved.

Hundreds of children making the dangerous trek across the border are just toddlers, younger than 2 years old. Yet I've been asked why Border Patrol agents don't throw these young immigrants back across the Mexican border.

We should argue about every aspect of our nation's flawed immigration system. But whether or not you think undocumented immigrants are good for this country, whether they should be welcomed or deported, we should not debate whether we ought to take care of helpless children caught up in that debate.